This book focuses on an important but neglected aspect of the Spanish Civil War, the evolution of medical and surgical care of the wounded during the conflict. Importantly, the focus is from a mainly Spanish perspective – as the Spanish are given a voice in their own story, which has not always been the case. Central to the book is General Franco’s treatment of Muslim combatants, the anarchist contribution to health, and the medicalisation of propaganda – themes that come together in a medico-cultural study of the Spanish Civil War. Suffusing the narrative and the analysis is the traumatic legacy of conflict, an untreated wound that a new generation of Spaniards are struggling to heal.
Contents;List of images ;Acknowledgements ;Abbreviations ;Prologue;Chapter 1: Introduction;Anatomy of a conflict: Concepts and methodologies ;Historiography and the history of medicine of the Spanish Civil War ;Local and regional histories of medicine ;Chapter 2: Military conflict and medical care of the Moroccan wounded 1909-1939;Introduction ;The roots of a conflict: Regulares and the Army of Africa ;The Spanish Protectorate of Morocco: The birth of a military elite ;Professionalising the troops ;Surgical care of the wounded: North African amputees ;Medical admissions in Salamanca and Zaragoza ;Religion and culture ;Mosques, ‘cantinas’, courtesans and kif ;Care of the dead ;Conclusion ;Chapter 3: Organisation ;Introduction ;Civilian and military health during the Second Republic ;Ideologies of care: New directions ;Medical services at the start of the conflict ;Local and regional responses ;Pharmaceutical provision – manufacture and supply: A case study ;The role of insurgent women in pharmacy: Gendered propaganda ;Frontline medical services ;Building on the experiences of the First World War ;Evidence for the evolution of the Three Point Forward System ;Preparing for chemical warfare: Realities and propaganda ;Republican civic defence measures ;Insurgent civic defence measures ;Evacuation of the wounded ;Ambulances ;Hospital trains ;Hospital ships ;Conclusion ;Chapter 4: Blood propaganda;Introduction ;The historiography of blood transfusion and the Spanish Civil War ;The origins of modern blood transfusion ;The symbolic power of blood ;The role of film ;Heart of Spain ;Transfusió de Sang ;Defenders of the faith ;The image and the word ;Medical journals and propaganda ;Conclusion;Chapter 5: The end of the Spanish Civil War and the trauma of post-war Francoism;Introduction ;The Spanish Civil War 1936 –: An ongoing conflict? ;Trauma and its legacy ;The unequal trauma of defeat ;Gloriously mutilated: Christ the amputee;The beginning of exile: Conflicts in motion ;The Catalan Campaign ;The bombing of Catalunya: lessons learned? ;Hospitals in retreat: A case-study ;Evacuating the wounded ;Trauma imposed: Repression and incarceration;Catalunya occupied: The persecution of nurses ;Hospital penitentiaries ;Across the Pyrenees ;Care in France and in the French internment camps;Infants imprisoned: The Prison for Nursing Mothers in Madrid ;Conclusion ;Chapter 6: Conclusion;End Notes;Bibliography
Sebastian Browne is Associate Lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church, Kent and holds a PhD from the University of Kent.
